Game Thread: Reds at Diamondbacks (6.22.13)

Last night really wasn’t any fun, was it. Certainly, none of us expected Cueto to be like that. Tonight’s game features the pitcher we all expected to have nights like Cueto had last night. I wrote at the beginning of the season that many of you were being too hard on Mike Leake (7-3, 2.64), and I suppose now is as good a time as ever to say I told you so. I’m not insane, however, and I know Leake’s peripherals aren’t as good as his ERA. He’ll probably come back to earth – at least a little bit – eventually. Let’s hope it’s not tonight as Leake will be facing Patrick Corbin (9-0, 2.28) who has had numbers even better than Leake, but whose peripherals also give cause for a bit of an eyebrow raise.

The game is on FOX today in prime time. Let’s all hope the Reds can show off on the national stage and pull even with the Diamondbacks.

I actually think Dusty has a good baseball mind and he is great with the players. My problem with him is his conservative strategy. He always manages as if something is going to go wrong. He tries to account for the worst possible scenario. For example in the eighth inning, Ziegler can’t find the plate at all and we have Mes up trying to bunt Frazier over to 3rd. We have them on the ropes at that point. Why are we giving up an out? Go for the throat.

@mthomas5810: Dusty doesn’t have a good baseball mind. Everything he knows, “Hank Aaron told me one time. . . “, “Willie Mays told me one time. . . “. He continually shows when he has to make a decision, many can’t help wondering just what the heck is he doing.

Lots of things go into wins and losses each game. There is hardly ever any one thing that causes a win or loss. Tonight, some of the things:

– Offense just wasn’t there
– Chapman didn’t have it
– I have no clue why Baker didn’t have someone in the pen seeing how out of control Chapman was during the inning tonight. With no outs, Chapman should have been pulled when Chapman loaded the bases, if not after the batter before that.

So, no one can fully blame Baker for losing this one. But, this decision, leaving Chapman in, surely didn’t help.

As for showing confidence with his players, as far as I am concerned, I consider that is all rubbish. Tonight, he may have showed he had confidence in Chapman tonight. But, with that very decision, he showed he didn’t have any confidence in the rest of the pen to do the same job. Let’s see, what I would look for in a manager: Manage to win games or manage so that your players like you. Sorry, but the first item is the primary responsibility. When you let the second item interfere with your primary job, you become just what Baker is, a manager with no WS championships.

As for showing confidence with his players, as far as I am concerned, I consider that is all rubbish. Tonight, he may have showed he had confidence in Chapman tonight. But, with that very decision, he showed he didn’t have any confidence in the rest of the pen to do the same job. Let’s see, what I would look for in a manager: Manage to win games or manage so that your players like you. Sorry, but the first item is the primary responsibility. When you let the second item interfere with your primary job, you become just what Baker is, a manager with no WS championships

@steveschoen: Thus is something a Kirk Gibson doesn’t concern himself with. You play well you get time. You don’t? Oh well. Nothing personal but Skipper has a job to do – win games. They got rid of a rising star – Upton, because he didn’t fit Gibson’s idea of a warrior and everyone said what a disaster it was. It doesn’t look like too much of a disaster to me and Prado isn’t playing all that great.

Y’all have to admit that it’s kind of funny that the Reds have their infield in expecting a bunt from Ross, because after all, of course that’s what you do (what Baker does, everyone must do, right?). Then Ross is swinging away (because they don’t want to give up an out vs a wild pitcher who’s hard to bunt, with a lefty on deck). And oops, everyone move back…quick!

Didn’t matter because Chapman couldn’t throw strikes, but it could have mattered.

@Hank Aarons Teammate: Well, today is 1 thing. A month from now is another – RedForever did say “If …”. We’ll see what happens, but I don’t have a lot of confidence about where the Reds will be by August. .

@kywhi: Salary dump. The Reds went all in. If they continue to play poorly, the Reds may have to become sellers at the deadline. in that case, the high paid non-essential pieces should be traded for prospects.

Now they may get it back together. i sure hope so. But i’m seeing some disturbing trends that may not be fixable.

We definitely seem to have some short term memory issues. Leake and Bruce the only ones playing well? I seem to recall Votto with a string of multi-hit games prior to tonight. Frazier has been warming up. Arroyo has been pitching way above expectations. Oh never mind.

And from the stating the obvious department: By my calculations Chapman now has 3 blown saves and 18 saves. That’s a conversion percentage of 85.7%. That would be… completely ordinary. My gut tells me that about half of those 18 saves have been pretty easy – 3 run lead, bottom of the order coming up, that kind of stuff. Given that Dusty Baker pretty much refuses to use him in game critical situations and tries very hard to use him only for the 9th, only with a small-ish lead, no matter who is coming up or when, someone remind me why we the Reds refuse to stretch him out for the grand starter experiment. OR why they haven’t traded him (since he’s just lying around going to waste) for something they really need? Anyone? Bueller?

@Chris DeBlois: No argument here. You’re spot on with Chappy. Potentially the best arm in baseball, and they have failed to say to him- this is your job, do it. Instead, it is- you are a starter, no, you are a closer, no, i want you to start, no close the rest of this year, no, next year start,no, we want you to say you’ve wanted to close all along, but we’re not going to push it and let you throw more than one inning at a time. Good grief. No wonder things are what they are. Baby someone and that’s what you get.

This is an example of why I didn’t feel Chapman should be a starter. He has shown any control for only one inning at a time. The scouting report when he started at AAA was he could get through about 4 innings, and after that, he could do nothing. You need to keep the batters off balance, hit all 4 corners of the K-zone at will, etc. Chapman doesn’t have it. Very few closers have to worry about that. But, closers can at least get the ball over the plate.

But, then, also, with Chapman, he wasn’t up to the 100+ range tonight. I believe he was barely hitting 98, more like 95. Very human with those numbers.

I wouldn’t call for a sell off or anything. Right now, the Reds are in the playoffs. But, with how good this team is right now, you have to think they are a one and done team. Not only with how good the team is, but then their play is going to make Baker try to make more decisions, making results even worse.

I do believe we need a Rolen-type of leader to step up. Not that we need Rolen; I do think we should be starting Frazier, and Rolen would have been an expensive piece on the bench. I just wonder if there is any kind of locker room leader in there. Baker sure isn’t one; he’s more concerned with the players liking him.

For a guy to be a stopper (the way they are used in MLB today), you want someone who is consistently good. As opposed to often brilliant and sometimes not so good. The consistently good guy will get a save practically every time out. That’s because 2/3 of his appearances will be with a 2 or 3 run lead. Chapman is often brilliant, but sometimes he just doesn’t have it at all (this is his second time of not getting an out and seemingly not being able to get anyone out, if the game had continued). He’d have had a hard time protecting a 3 run lead today.